A SPORTS goods shop which is being sued for negligence by the mother of a two year old boy failed yesterday to have the mother included as a defendant.
The shop, Pro Golf of America Ltd, of the Apollo Centre in Dundrum, Dublin, alleges contributory negligence by Mrs Suzanne Foxton of The Palms, Roebuck Road, Clonskeagh. She claims that Samuel Foxton drank white spirits from an allegedly open and unattended bottle in the shop last April, and is seeking £30,000 in damages.
The defendants deny liability and are defending the action.
The Circuit Court president, Mr Justice Spain, rejected the application.
He said the defendants contended that Mrs Foxton had been warned that the boy might be injured after he had overturned a basket of loose golf balls. They claimed she took no notice of this warning and made no attempt to control him.
"The incident with the golf balls seems to be rather a far cry from what eventually allegedly happened when the child apparently swallowed a quantity of dangerous liquid," Mr Justice Spain said.
"I think the defendants would have to show that such an incident was reasonably foreseeable by the mother before they could establish she was negligent for not controlling her child."